


Ask Me Again

by harryhermionerw



Series: Imagine Tony & Bucky [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: If You Squint - Freeform, M/M, Misunderstandings, Misunderstandings Like Whoa, Oblivious Tony, hand wavy marvel universe, i guess there's technically cheating, imagine prompt fill, its just kind of there, not real sure of the timeline, seriously, super oblivious tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 19:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12260241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harryhermionerw/pseuds/harryhermionerw
Summary: Tony thought Bucky was being nice. Bucky thought he was asking Tony out. Serious misunderstandings ensue. Tony is oblivious.Veryoblivious.





	Ask Me Again

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from ITAB: Bucky thinks theyre dating and Tony doesn't (he thinks Bucky hates him or something) and has been going on dates. The whole team thinks they're dating actually. So either the team "catches" Tony and tell Bucky or Tony finally giving up and asking Natasha to set him on a date and Natasha yells at him about it like "how dare you do this to him!" And idk splashes a drink in his face then tells Bucky. Either way, Tony is very confused and is even more confused to have an angry Bucky in his workshop.
> 
> It's in a handwavy Marvel universe, didn't really plan that part out. Steve and Bucky are from the past and.... I'm not sure which movies/canon applies here. I just kind of went with the prompt, okay? Okay.
> 
> Here's my very first official ITAB prompt fill as an author for them! Enjoy!

“Do you want to go out?” Bucky asked, in an very even tone. It was almost emotionless.

Tony startled. “What?” He looked up from the guts of a phone he was fiddling with. His brows drew together as he started at the other man. Surely he wasn't asking what Tong thought he was asking. He was just.. lonely. Starved for company. “ _ What _ ?”

Bucky took a step back, his face twitching minutely.

Probably annoyance, Tony concluded. Bucky was always annoyed when around him. It made his stomach knot that Bucky... disliked him so intently, but he wasn't going to force him presence on the other man. It would be rude.

“Everyone is going out to go see that new movie that you were going on about,” Bucky said, in that same even tone. “I thought- Maybe you would like to come with-”

“And you got suckered into dragging me out of here?” Tony interrupted, wryly. Then he had another thought. “Wait, who’s everybody?”

Bucky’s face looked like he had sucked on a lemon. “Steve, Sam, and Nat. Clint is off Robin Hooding and Thor is off.... doing whatever Thor does.”

“Well, that’s something at least,” Tony considered. “No Thor to talk over the movie.”

Bucky cracked a little bit of a smile. “Like you’re one to talk.”

Tony clutched his heart. “I am  _ wounded,  _ Bucky. Absolutely wounded.”

The smile grew a little bit. “You comin’?”

Mentally reviewing his to-do list, and weighing his desire to see the movie against being a fifth wheel, he pushed away from the table. “Love too, Buckaroo. Let me,” he gestured expansively at himself. “Clean,” he said vaguely. 

“We’re leaving in an hour!”

 

\--

 

Natasha looked at Bucky as he exited the elevator. “How’d it go?”

“He said yes,” Bucky said, a hint of a smile on his face.

Natasha tipped her head, looking at him as if she could see to his soul. “Wear the blue shirt you got last week,” was all she said, before walking away.

 

\--

 

They got two popcorns between the five of them, insisting that no, Tony, they did not all need their own large bucket of popcorn. As they filed into seats, Tony noticed the strange order of the other four. Steve sat on the far side of the group, followed by Natasha, then Sam. He was on the other side, sitting next to Bucky. He was puzzled, but figured they didn't want him to feel too left out by pairing off. It was sweet, he thought fleetingly, but unnecessary. Sure, he wanted to be in a relationship, but he didn't begrudge them theirs. 

Sam shoved the bucket in Natasha’s lap. She gave him a withering look. “If you spill this into my lap,” she trailed off.

“You should watch out for Steve, he's the klutz!” Sam protested.

While they bickered, Bucky wedged the other bucket between them. Tony looked down at the bucket then up at Bucky. “What, no threats for me?” he half-joked, fluttering his lashes.

Bucky rolled his eyes. “If you spill the gallon of butter you put on this thing on me, I'll make you lick it off.”

Tony froze for what felt like a minute but was really only a few seconds. What the  _ hell. _ “Oh,” he forced out a grin. “You wish,” he winked. 

Thankfully Steve interrupted their conversation before Bucky could reply, and their mini-argument lasted until the lights went down.

 

\--

 

Bucky came two days later, bearing plates of pasta. Tony glanced away from the holograms he was manipulating. “While I love pasta, I think that's overestimating my stomach just a bit.”

“I was going to stay and eat here.”

Tony stared at him. “To make sure I eat it all? I assure you, despite what you might have heard I  _ am  _ an adult and am capable of eating. I do so quite regularly. And this pasta looks delicious and I have no problems stopping to eat it.”

Bucky looked frustrated, which was in no way unusual. Not for Bucky to look around him, or really anyone to look around him. Which was somehow more painful than other people’s annoyed reactions to him. “I want to.”

Suspiciously, Tony took one of the plates. Steve had probably put it up to this. “Where’s Steve?”

“Out with Natasha and Sam.”

Strange, Tony thought. But the siren’s call of pasta and some time to think through the problem he was working on outweighed forcing his personality on Bucky. “If you don't mind too much.”

“It's fine, genius.”

Tony’s mouth was already full or he would have responded to that. Holy shit, it was  _ homemade  _ pasta. 

 

\--

 

“We had lunch,” Bucky told Steve.

Steve raised his eyebrows. “You mean you managed to get his attention away from his work?”

“I made homemade pasta.”

Steve whistled. “You  _ definitely _ know the way to his heart.”

 

\--

 

Tony whirled. “How long have you been down here?”

Bucky lowered the book he was reading and aborted his next throw. DUM-E made a sad beep as the tennis ball barely went two feet. “What?”

“How long have you been in here?” Tony repeated, slowly. “How did you get in here?” He made a frustrated noise and shoved his hand through his hair, smearing grease into it. There was a streak of black on his cheek. 

Bucky’s brow furrowed. “Two hours maybe?” He hazarded. “And you said I could. I asked if I could come in and be with you and you said yes,” pausing, as if in thought, he continued. “You didn't seem to be real focused on me though.”

Tony stared at him. Why would Bucky willingly want to spend time with him? And why hadn't he noticed someone in his space before? Other Avengers had spent time on his couch before but he always felt their presence like an itch between his shoulderblades. It felt like they were trying to figure him out, like a puzzle, or fit him into a box. This was different. It was almost nice. “Why?”

“Why what?”

Frustrated, Tony snatched a dirty rag to clean his hands, just for something to do. “Why are you hanging out here? With me?”

An expression passed over Bucky’s face too quick for Tony to identify. “Why wouldn't I?”

It was said so simply that Tony gaped at Bucky. 

_ Now _ he could identify the expression on his face - hurt - as Bucky gathered the book he was reading and the water bottle he had brought down with him, rising as if to leave.

Backpedaling quickly, Tony snapped his mouth shut and thought quickly. “No wait,” he said without thinking. Bucky paused and looked back at him. “I- well- you can stay,” he finished lamely. 

Bucky hesitated. “You don't sound sure.”

Not feeling sure about any of this, Tony picked his words carefully. This felt like a bomb about to go off, and not one of his old ones, but a shitty Hammer bomb liable to blow without being triggered. “I was just- surprised. No one wants to sit and listen to me work. It's... not entertaining,” he finished finally. 

Bucky’s posture relaxed. “I don't need you to be entertaining, DUM-E’s got that covered,” he said, one corner of his mouth hitched up. 

Scoffing, Tony looked at his bot. “That pile of bolts?”

Bucky patted DUM-E’s arm. “It's ok, he doesn't mean that, DUM-E.”

Tony hid a fond smile. Anyone who liked his bots, and who his bots liked back, was a good person in his book. “Sure do,” he replied cheerfully. “But if you want to sit here and be suckered into throwing a tennis ball for hours, then thanks for taking one for the team and keeping him out of the way.”

DUM-E let out an indigent beep. 

“Fine, you can help when I get to the heavy lifting!” Tony replied, throwing his hands up in the air.

Now there was a full smile on Bucky’s face. It was the first one that was in Tony’s direction, he thought. “Go,” he said, making shooing motions at the two. “I have work to get done.”

Maybe he was growing on Bucky. Like mold, he thought, vaguely disgusted at the comparison.

 

\--

 

“Where did you disappear to?” Sam asked, as they competed at MarioKart. 

Swerving deliberately to knock Sam off the track, Bucky shrugged. “Tony’s workshop.”

Sam stopped cursing at falling off the rainbow. “Arm?” There was sympathy in his voice. 

“Nah. Just sitting in there with him.”

 

\--

 

Nat stopped speaking, and looked at the entrance. “Is that Tony? No-” she sighed as both Sam and Steve immediately, and obviously, turned in their chairs to look where she was looking. 

Steve turned back. “That's Tony but Bucky didn't say anything about a date tonight,” he said with a frown.

“Wait, is that that woman from the gala the other night?” Sam’s voice sounded confused. “The one who was hitting on Tony all night?”

Natasha looked closer at the two people who were being led closer to the three of them. “It is. Apparently she's going to help co-host fundraising gala in a few months for the Maria Stark Foundation.”

Steve’s brows drew together. “This is an... awfully intimate place for a business meeting.”

“I don't think it's a business meeting,” Sam said slowly, watching their body language. “It looks... like a date.”

Steve stiffened and drew in breath to argue, but Natasha looked at the two carefully. It did look like a date. 

Tony noticed them before Steve could reply. Instead of shying away, or freezing, he lit up. Tugging the woman over with him, he smiled at the three of them. “Hi! Where’s Bucky? Bathroom? Oh, yes, this is Linda, my date for the evening, first date and all, you might remember her from the gala. Linda this is-” He didn't have time to finish the introduction, because his stomach and pants were suddenly soaked. “What the hell, Natasha?”

The immediate area around the table was silent. Natasha neatly folded her napkin. “I never took you for a cheater, Stark.” She got up and walked away before he could reply, pulling out her phone.

Tony gaped. “Cheater?”

Linda pulled away from him. “Maybe we should postpone this evening.” She offered him a small piece of fabric. It wouldn't do much again the sopping fabric of his pants, but it was a nice gesture. “I'll get in touch about the gala, Tony.” She, too, walked away.

Tony glanced between Steve and Sam, who both looked stony faced. “Cheating?” He repeated himself. “What the hell?” He held up a hand. “I thought you knew I wasn't dating Pepper anymore? We broke up months ago!” Annoyed, he stalked away, ignoring the steadily rising murmurs of the other diners.

 

\--

 

“He  _ what?” _ Bucky pulled the phone away from his ear to stare at it, as if that held the answer.

“He said she was his date for the night,” Natasha repeated. “I don't know what was going on.”

Bucky’s face hardened. “I'll find out.” He hid the end call button and stalked to the elevator. 

 

\--

 

Tony sat on a stool in his workshop, thankfully dried off, but too annoyed and confused to work. His hands tapped out a tempo as he thought out the evening’s disaster over and over again. The doors to his workshop opened with an ominous sound, and he didn’t bother turning to face whoever had just came in. Probably there just to yell at him about cheating, for whatever reason.

“What the hell was that?”

It was Bucky. And he sounded...  _ hurt.  _

He stood and turned now, to face him. “What the hell was what? I went out on a date, I don’t understand why everyone is so upset!” His voice took on a plaintive note.

“Don’t  _ understand _ ?” Bucky’s voice was dangerously soft now. “Is cheatin’ somethin’ you do without thinkin’ twice about?” His accent thickened.

“I’m not dating Pepper anymore!” Tony defended himself.

“Well good, cause you were datin’ me!” 

Stunned, Tony groped for his stool before lowering himself onto it. “What?”

It was clear Bucky was gearing himself up for a rant, Tony had seen him in full-rant mode before, usually when Steve had a particularly ‘jump out of a plane without a parachute’-like idea, but that breathless question stopped it in it’s tracks. 

“Whaddya mean, what?”

“I mean, what do you mean I’m dating you?”

They stared at each other for a full minute in silence. Bucky opened and closed his mouth several times. Tony couldn’t even form a full thought. Dating? Them? What? When?

“I asked you out,” Bucky finally managed. “Three weeks ago.”

Tony simply stared at him. Three weeks ago? 

“The movie you wanted to see?” Bucky prompted.

“You’re dating Natasha.” There, coherent words. Tony was pleased he had remembered that fact with his brain offline.

Now Bucky looked offended. “Nat’s dating Steve and Sam.”

“Is this some sort of parallel universe? Did I walk through a portal? Did Reed Richards fuck something up again?”

If possible, Bucky looked even  _ more  _ offended. “I brought you pasta, we went to the arcade, we went out to Central Park, and I hung out here with you last week.”

“Okay,” Tony muttered to himself. “No parallel universe then.” He paused. “You asked me out?”

“When we went to go see that movie you wanted to see!” 

Tony thought back to the afternoon of the movie. Had Bucky? “I thought- You were just- Being nice and inviting the only single guy,” he concluded.

“And the homemade pasta?”

“Steve forced you to bring me food so I wouldn’t starve.”

Bucky looked a little desperate now. “Hanging out with you?”

Tony shrugged. “I find engineering relaxing. If you did too, why would I begrudge you that?” He hesitated. “I didn’t think you liked me at all.”

Bucky looked pained. “What?”

Tony looked away, not wanting to put it into words. “You never wanted to be around me, and you never really talked to me.” It sounded lame. It sounded silly and vaguely like middle-school.

Sighing heavily, Bucky gestured towards a stool near Tony. “May I?” At Tony’s nod, he sat. “I thought it’d be too obvious if I was around ya too long. Or talked to ya too long.”

Leaning on the table, Tony contemplated the disaster of the past three weeks. “What the  _ hell,”  _ he finally said, “did we do?”

“Did what two human disasters do best, I guess,” Bucky said, giving a half smile. It still looked a little pained.

Tony looked at Bucky, really looked at him. “Look. I... never really considered this-”

“Oh, don’t give me the easy let down-” Bucky interrupted. “I don’t need to hear it. It’s fine-”

“Oh shut up,” Tony said mildly. “But you bring me homemade pasta, you’re good-looking, and you’re right at home in the workshop.” He paused, looked down at his hands as if for the right words. “Obviously we should maybe take some time to think this through, but maybe after some time we could try again? Maybe this time where  _ both  _ of us know what’s going on?”

Bucky couldn’t say anything, he was too busy staring at Tony.

Eyes rolling, Tony gently closed Bucky’s mouth with a fingertip. “This offer is predicated on one,  _ you  _ telling Natasha, Steve, and Sam - and wow, I did not see that - what happened so I don’t get soaked again, thanks for that. And two, you hang out around here and we try to be friends first. Without me thinking you hate me.”

“Soaked?”

“You would fixate on that,” Tony muttered. “Tasha threw her drink at me. At my stomach, thankfully.”

“Even pissed she wouldn’t aim at your face,” he said knowingly.

Startled, Tony eyed Bucky. How had he known? “Well, she ruined a very lovely shirt.”

Bucky held out a hand. “Deal.”

Tony shook his hand. “Deal.” He echoed.

 

\--

 

“He didn’t  _ know? _ ”

“You’re the one who told me he was oblivious!”

“Yeah but not  _ that  _ oblivious!”

 

\--

 

_ Three months later _

 

Tony brought Bucky a plate of pasta. “Hungry?” He wasn’t. His stomach was in knots. 

Bucky looked up from the book he was reading and grinned. “Definitely. Brought enough for both of us, or do you need to run off and work?”

“Nah, I figured I’d eat with you.”

Tony took a deep breath. “Can I ask you a question?”

Shovelling pasta into his mouth was not an attractive look, Tony concluded, but it was somehow endearing. Bucky nodded and gave a go ahead gesture. 

“Remember the conversation we had after I ‘cheated’? Tony asked, adding air quotes.

Bucky set down his fork, and nodded. “Yeah,” he said hoarsely. “Changed your mind?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Tony said quickly. He shoved a hand through his hair. This time, the hand was clean. He took another deep breath, and asked. “Want to ask me again?” He smiled, but he was pretty sure it was shaking with nerves.

Bucky blinked a few times. “Ask you- oh!”

Surprisingly, that made Tony’s nerves settle a little. “Yeah.”

Bucky looked down, as if steeling himself, then back up at Tony. “So, there’s a movie you’ve been wanting to see. What to go see it? With me?  _ Alone?”  _ he added. “And then continue going on romantic dates with me in the future?”

Tony smiled. “Why, James Buchanan Barnes, are you asking to ration me?”

That startled a laugh out of him. “Where did you hear that?”

“Steve.”

“He’s a punk.”

“Yeah, well?”

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Well, in that case, yeah, I’d love to go out with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I was writing this and then all of a sudden it was three thousand words. Kind of long for a ITAB prompt fill, but you know. Oh well. *shrugs*


End file.
